You knew it was coming. The review of the foods that YA and I sampled at the fair this year. I’m thinking of this as a public service announcement for any trips to the fair that you might be considering for next year!
Staples/Old Favorites (Some of them anyway)
- Sweet Martha’s Cookies – every day. What doesn’t get eaten right away goes into my Tupperware to be dipped into as the day progresses. Still yummy when they are warm and gooey.
- Potato Cheddar Crepe. This is YA’s favorite. They make the crepes to order so they are also warm and gooey.
- The corn stand is an amazing piece of production and, of course, the corn is also fabulous.
- Pickle Pizza. Another of YA’s staples. They’ve added a second outlet this year so while the lines were long, they weren’t as awful as prior years. What she likes best is that the base is a white sauce, so the pickles aren’t sparring with tomato sauce for the lead.
- Cheese Curds. Like usual, the Mouthtrap curds in the Food Building are the best. They also have a fabulous set-up so while the lines look long, once you’re in line, it goes really fast. Warm, crunchy, not too greasy. They’ve got all the other curds beat.
New Foods This Year
- Pimento Cheese Puffs at Shanghai Henri’s (International Bazaar). Pretty good, could have been fried a bit less; the crunch was a bit much. Nice cheesy insides, not too spicy with a nice sweet and sour sauce. 5 stars
- Three Cheese Mac Savory Cone at Roons (near sheep/poultry barn). Like it says – mac & cheese in a waffle cone. The mac & cheese had too many savory spices for me and the cone was a little “tough”. 3 stars
- Vegetarian Spring Rolls at Panda Palace (International Bazaar). YA ate most of these and reported that they weren’t anything special. 3 stars
- Sweet Squeakers at The Blue Barn (West End). White curds, battered, fried, dusted w/ cinnamon/sugar. Topped with a lemon whipped mousse and raspberry sauce. Header photo! Interesting concept but WAY overdone. You really couldn’t tell that the base of cheese curds wasn’t really recognizable. 4 stars
- Strawberry Crunch Mini Donuts at Solem’s (North End). They looked good but most of the strawberry flavor was in the topping, so after the top layer of donuts was eaten, the donuts themselves didn’t have a lot of taste. And I have to say, putting crunch around the edge of the bucket looks striking, it is a MESS. 3 stars.
This isn’t by any means all the foods we plied ourselves with but a good overview. Sad to say that there were no new foods that received 5 stars from us. Next year when we print out our food list, it won’t include any of them. But the old favorites didn’t disappoint.
If you do the fair next year, hopefully our research will be helpful to you!
What cheese is never yours?
Looking at this now, I feel I should point out that all this food was eaten over the course of the fair, not in one day. I went five times and YA went six times!
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What cheese is never mine? If you mean what kind of cheese I refuse, that would be bleu cheese. I mean, why would I want to eat mold? It tastes like mold to me. Blech!
I like cheddar curds. Sharp cheddar is my favorite.
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I had a brick cheese a while back that tasted and smelled just awful.. and I’m not wild about Jarlsberg.
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Some of my favorites, though, are a cheddar/Gruyère blend, and there’s a dessert cheese with a little sweet to it that I can’t name… Anyone?
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Mascarpone?
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Maybe.
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Cheese Whiz.
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Yes!
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Well, actually you did give the Pimento Cheese Puffs five stars. Or should that have been a four?
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Good thing one of us is paying attention. : ) : )
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It was supposed to be 4.5. Thanks for the catch!!
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I am not real fond of gjetost.
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Husband is from Wisconsin. He is a real cheese fanatic. We have so many different kinds of cheese in our fridge. We currently have two kinds of gjetost in the fridge. One is made from exclusively from goats milk. The other is from goat and cow’s milk.
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Husband says he does not like smoked cheese, limburger, German hand cheese, hard Greek grating cheese, processed cheese products, or head cheese
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One of the Mpls co-ops had a cheese-of-the-month special for a while, and I discovered some wonderful cheeses then – one of them was probably a nice goat cheese, maybe the dessert one I mentioned above.
My dad’s recipe for macaroni/cheese calls for his favorite, longhorn colby – I wonder what is longhorn about it…
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OT
Looking to binge some peaceful TV?
I recommend The Detectorists. Light comedy British style.
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Looks like fun…
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A friend told us about that and we watched a few episodes. Didn’t really work for me but it was fun
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I used to watch that late at night when I got home from work.
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“Nacho cheese”
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I like Colby and mild cheddar. I do like blue cheese dressing and blue cheese on my burgers.
If I eat sharp cheddar my face sweats. it’s the weirdest thing
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With the possible exception of Limburger (smelled but never tasted) and “processed” cheeses, I’m more or less a cheese freak. We have a dedicated cheese bin in the fridge that currently contains: sharp cheddar, smoked Gouda, fresh mozzarella, regular mozzarella, Monterey Jack, chèvre, blueberry chèvre, Parmesan-Reggiano, red Somerset, brie, Jarlsberg, Gorgonzola, Emmenthaler, and Gruyere. There’s no Gjetost at the moment (more of a winter cheese for me). I’m also out of Cotswold cheddar, which is one of our favorites. We browse the cheese sections of Trader Joe’s and Costco for new cheeses to try.
Is The Detectorists the show with Toby Jones? I think we watched one episode and were confused. I probably should try it again.
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I forgot. I also have a large container of feta cheese crumbles but it’s not in the cheese bin.
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